Tummy Tuck, Arm Lift, and Back Lift

Two weeks ago I had a Tummy Tuck, Arm Lift, and...

7 May 2009

Two weeks ago I had a Tummy Tuck, Arm Lift, and Rolls In Back Lift. The surgery went well, and I came home the within 2 hours after going into recovery room. The process has been totally painless. My discomfort level on a scale of 1 thru 10 has been up to level 2.

I must admit I was expecting a lot of pain based on everything I have read on sites about T.Tucks. I have started taking daily walks/strolls of 20 minutes just because. I had 4 drains, one was removed a week ago, and I hope the other 3 are removed to tomorrow which will be two weeks.

I have almost no swelling at this time, I am sure there might be some swelling, but it is almost all gone.

I have a total of 72 inches of sutures will all the work. I have oozing on one arm which my doctor says should be expected with the amount of sutures, I hope it stops soon. I can not believe how good everything looks. I was totally terrified about having surgery, but I could not let my fear stop me.

When I was awaken from anesthia in the operating room, I refused to go back to sleep in the recovery room which the nurse commented on. Actually I did not go back to sleep until late that night.

Surgery started at 8am and I was brought into the recovery room at 1:00pm, released by 3pm. I had plan to start trying to stand up straight on Thursday. But, I started standing up straight naturally on Wednesday, the surgery was on Saturday, so about 4 days afterwards I was straight.

Today is July 21, 2009, I had my surgery on April...

21 Jul 2009

Today is July 21, 2009, I had my surgery on April 25,2009 (3 months ago) which consist of Tummy Tuck, Arm Lift, and Back Rolls Lift. (total cost $12,500) My recovery went very very well. I am amazed and very thankful for the results I have gotten. My initial swelling appeared to me to have gone away within the first 2-3 weeks of surgery, but I am sure that there was unnoticeable swelling. Anyway, I am wearing the clothes that I have wanted to wear all my life, yes, all my life. Sleeveless blouses have never been worn, until now, tucked in blouses with a belt and tight skirt is now around my waist, I use to have the apron hang at the bottom of my stomach (from giving childbirth at age 17, I'm now 47), but never a big stomach so nobody knows I've had a T.T. cause my blouses always drapped the bottom of my stomach back then, and my back rolls, are gone. I did lose 80 pounds of weight over the past four years prior to surgery, but that appeared to make me more self conscious of the rolls and skin giggling on my arms especially. I hated to hear the apron skin slap on my stomach when I would run while playing tennis. Now that's all gone.

About my fears of surgery, I was not afraid of surgery or the potential pain, I was just afraid of not waking up from the anesthia, everything I read focused on that, and it terrified me. However, it only took me 6 weeks to make up my mind to have surgery after visiting my first of about 6 surgeons. The only reason I thought about surgery is cause my co-workers thought I had a T. Tuck cause of the new look from my weight lose. That was in March, surgery was April. Anyway, I went into a mental block in route to the hospital the day of surgery, I blocked out what was about to happen because I could not deal with the fear of what might happen with the anesthia. I had an aunt in the late 50s/early 60s where things did not end well, so my fear was greater, but that was the back then, this is almost 2010, I wasn't gonna let anything, I mean anything, stop me.

Since the surgery, I have lose ten more pounds, which my surgern warned me could loosen the tightness on my stomach, but will not severily change the results. I told him that I have 10-15 more pounds to go, he said that it would not change the arm results cause he initially got those extremely tight, they actually feel much better now that they have loosen a bit, he said that I will be looser in the stomach, but that it would still look good. Over four years ago, I had allowed myself to get back up to 260, now I am 170 (180 on surgery date/184 temporarily two days afterwards), now I am heading for 155-160. But the funny part, I have always been very very active, but I now know that a small amount of the wrong food have extremely negative results on me.

I wanted to be in a Hospital environment because I felt if something goes wrong, I wanted to have all available equipment at my doctor's disposal. Thankfully everything went well, I actually, without doctor's approval, played tennis on the 17th day after surgery, I know, I was wrong. I did admit that to my doctor after one of my visits, he looked at me and told me, yes, you were wrong, but all is still good ( = Since my 4 week check up, I have been playing tennis full-time, back in the gym, doing all my usualy activities, never any pain from the surgery, and I am getting on with my new results happily. Thank ya! Thank ya! Thank ya! I finally feel free to really be me ( =